Structured Debate for Evidence-Informed Judgment in Dental Education.

This perspective proposes structured scientific debate as a formative educational practice through which dental students can practice reasoning under uncertainty, examining assumptions, and using evidence to support defensible judgments. An illustrative example of an inter-university postgraduate debate was described including the participants' perceptions of their experience. Drawing on this example and relevant literature, the study advances independent judgment, intellectual humility, patient-centered dialogue, and responsible clinical decision-making as educational aims that structured debate may help support.